Teacher Gives Class Something Extra

April 24, 1988|By LORI CROUCH, Education Writer

In Beverly Neering`s first year of teaching in 1971, she taught a class of 37 sixth-graders at East Lake Middle in Pahokee in a building with no air conditioner. Some of her students didn`t even know all the letters of the alphabet. And most of her students never saw the ocean 40 miles east of the school.

Neering gathered eight of her friends on a Saturday and they loaded the children into their cars and drove them to Lantana Beach, to the brand new Palm Beach Mall, and then to a movie, before returning them home.

``I went through a little bit of culture shock,`` said the native of the North Carolina mountains. ``That was a really good introduction for me to Palm Beach County. I got a real education my first year as educator. It was a wonderful lesson for me.``

Neering, now a second-grade teacher at Greenacres Elementary School, is the recipient of the elementary school category of the William T. Dwyer Excellence in Education awards for teachers of the year.

And while her current students do not have the drastic problems prevalent in the schools of Belle Glade and Pahokee in the 1970s, students always need that something extra, she says.

``The teachable moment is when children ask `what` or `why,``` she said. ``The best learning is when they`re not even aware they`re learning.``

That something extra can include a song-and-dance about reptiles or spiders at the end of the day. Or scraping in some field trips. Or a hug at the end of the day if a student wants it.

And her students appreciate it.

``She`s the best teacher we ever had,`` Wendy Luke said. ``She`s the best teacher in the whole world. ``

Neering has the effervescence of a freshly poured glass of Perrier. Her mind veers in several directions, so excited is she about everything she does. It`s a contagious enthusiasm.

For instance, her students went on a field trip to a Florida Power & Light generator station in Riveria Beach to see manatees. The station hadn`t seen any in weeks, so the children concentrated on wishing the manatees there. The manatees still had not appeared as the end of the trip drew near.

The children clung to the fences with long faces, disappointed because none had shown up. ``Gee, it`s a nice day,`` they said in disappointed tones, trying to be positive. And three manatees emerged in the warm waters.

``(One boy) was convinced that because we had put energy into wanting them, they came,`` Neering said.

Right now, she is dedicated to bringing environmental education to her students and eventually to the rest of the school and the district. Her outdoor classroom will slowly grow over the next couple of years from saplings surrounded by wood chips to a Seminole chickee.

So far, fledgling trees are sprouting under older slash pines at a corner of the schoolyard. Roots from one slash pine pulled down to make way for a parking lot provide a study of decomposition. The students love litter pick-up days when they clear the outdoor classroom of rubbish left by careless trespassers.

``Wanting to teach and wanting to be outdoors has always been a dilemma,`` she said, observing her domain. ``I always wanted to be a teacher; I`ve always loved it, but I love the outdoors. With the outdoor classroom, you can always capture the imagination of the children. Starting the outdoor classroom has resolved a need in me.``

This also has captured the 1988 Conservation Teacher of the Year award for her from the Palm Beach Soil and Water Conservation District. Eileen Tramontana, district assistant administrator, knows Neering`s children have been well-tilled for the seeds of learning she is planting.

``Her classes are one of my favorite classes to teach,`` Tramontana said. ``They`re always well interested and are just a joy to teach. Her kids are always fascinated. She sparks their interest, just makes them fascinated with the world around them.``

The children are learning a love of the outdoors from Neering`s instruction. It is evident from their sketches of their favorite things: one child chose litter pick-up day, another the field trips to the Dreher Park Science Museum, another the outdoor classroom, the zoo, the manatees, and so on.

And look at her portable classroom`s walls: ``Save the manatee`` posters, photographs of Neering and a Florida panther, posters and pictures of baby sea turtles and Neering`s students, and plaster moldings of animal tracks.

Aide Chrissy Butterworth, who attends college at night so she can become a teacher, has learned valuable lessons from Neering.

``I love her,`` she said. ``It`s been a real learning experience. She has all sorts of different techniques -- children don`t all work in the same way.``

If Neering had a magic wand, she would wave away the increasing stress on teachers, students and parents. Teaching the children to believe they are successful is one way she tries a slow magic over the stress students face in doing everything they are required to do.